


Primary

by Nokomis



Series: Batfam tumblr prompt fic [9]
Category: Batman (Comics), Batman - All Media Types
Genre: Batfamily (DCU) Feels, Brotherly Bonding, Fluff, Gen, arts and crafts
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-09-22
Updated: 2020-09-22
Packaged: 2021-03-08 04:41:01
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,324
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26599957
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Nokomis/pseuds/Nokomis
Summary: Jason stumbles across Damian surrounded by glitter glue, pipe cleaners and justso manyprimary colors in the midst of a school project gone wrong.  Turns out Jason doesn't end up regretting his offer to help out.
Series: Batfam tumblr prompt fic [9]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1870660
Comments: 10
Kudos: 249





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**Author's Note:**

> Written for dn-ky for the prompt, _Jason and Damian, when words aren't enough_. Originally posted on my tumblr [here](https://nokomiss.tumblr.com/post/629908053327839232/for-the-prompt-how-about-jason-and-damian-with)!

There was a loud thumping noise and even louder cursing coming from the library.

Jason would normally keep walking, heading instead to the kitchen for that home cooked meal that Alfred had promised, but he recognized the voice. Damian sounded frustrated to the point of tears,which simply was _not_ normal, and he had the feeling that if Tim or Bruce wandered by and chose to investigate, that Damian would buck up and become even more recalcitrant than usual.

He stood outside the door for a long moment, listening -- the cursing continued, though quieter, and with a single-minded determination that Jason almost admired. He sighed and pushed open the door.

Damian was in the center of the room, surrounded by a small fortune’s worth of art supplies. This wouldn’t be unusual, except instead of Damian’s preferred sketchpads, pencils and paints, he was surrounded by hot glue guns, googly eyes, and various colorful bits of fluff.

“What the hell is all this?” Jason asked, nudging a pile of what looked like feathers dyed in primary colors with the toe of his boot.

“A nightmare,” Damian said darkly. There was a smear of blue paint on his nose; Jason was absolutely not going to tell him about it.

“So I see,” Jason said. There was a posterboard in front of Damian that he was attempting to glue pipe cleaners along the edges of. It wasn’t going well, judging by the glops of glue and the sad state of the pipe cleaners. _My Family_ , it proclaimed in colorful balloon letters. He was going to regret this, but… “Can I help?”

“No.” Damian abandoned the pipe cleaners and dug through the pile of craft supplies, coming up with some sparkly fuzzballs. He picked up the glue gun and began to affix them around a picture of Bruce. It looked as though Bruce was being attacked by muppets.

Jason gave one more thought to the home cooked meal; Alfred had promised him soup. He supposed that it would wait. Sit there simmering away while he granted mercy to the boy.

Damian growled at the glue gun, then stuck a finger tip in his mouth, clearly having burnt himself. Jason definitely needed to step in while the kid still had fingerprints. He sat down and grabbed some glue.

“You know who you should call?” Jason said a few minutes later after making the mistake of opening the glitter. 

“Absolutely not.” Damian didn’t even look up from where he was adding sparkly letters under Jason’s picture. Jason leaned over to see what he was spelling out: _RIP_.

Fair enough. Jason was still legally dead, and he could use some peaceful nights of sleep.

“You know how happy Steph gets when there’s glitter and you ask her for help,” Jason tried again. This was clearly a mission for her, but he had a sinking feeling that he was going at it solo. He could leave, he knew, but they were actually making progress and Damian was no longer cursing.

“No one else can know,” Damian said, probably trying for stern but it was undercut by the fact that glitter now cling to the paint on his nose. It was adorable. Jason was going to take a pic the second the kid’s attention was turned and use it as blackmail for _years_. 

Then he noticed what Damian was doing. “Hey, those flames better be because of how fire I am, not because of anything theological.”

Damian lowered the flame sticker and put it to the side, leaving the picture of fifteen year old Jason unmarred. 

“So why are you going this overboard?” Jason asked. Damian had a tendency to overdo things, sure, but this was hardly his style.

Damian focused on adding a poop emoji sticker over Tim’s picture. When he spoke, his voice was quiet. Embarrassed. “This is a redo.”

“A redo— Damian, did you _fail_ an assignment?” Jason forgot what he was doing and accidentally let a puddle of glitter glue form on the poster. “Shit,” he muttered, attempting to mop it up. 

Damian’s silence spoke volumes. Jason looked again at the mountain of colorful, sparkly supplies and did the math. “Did your teacher suggest more color?”

“She said my first attempt was austere and depressing,” Damian admitted. 

Jason narrowed his eyes. “Show me.”

Damian shook his head. “It doesn’t matter.” He carefully drew an elaborate border around Cass’s picture in purple marker. 

Jason thought it _did_ matter. He stood up, brushing stray bits of glitter off his pants -- these were his work pants, too, he was apparently going to be leaving a glitter trail on the rooftops of Gotham tonight -- and headed for Damian’s backpack, which was laying near the door. Like the kid had dropped it carelessly on his way in, which, again, not like him.

Damian was so focused on his art that he didn’t realize Jason’s plan at first. 

The poster board was folded up and crammed into the back pocket of the backpack, and Jason almost looked it over at first. It was dark enough to blend in.Then -- just as Damian launched himself at Jason and attempted to stop him from opening it, Jason easily dodged him and opened it anyway.

It _was_ austere, the teacher had been right on that count. But the effort Damian had put in to capture the family’s aesthetic was incredible-- dark grey poster board, black and white pictures of each family member, with a careful description beneath each. No further decoration, but it was clean and classic, and reminded Jason of the lines of the Wayne building downtown.

Then he realized that the black and white pictures were actually _sketches_ of each family member. Bruce looking on with approval, arms crossed over his chest. Dick laughing, a spoonful of cereal halfway to his mouth. Tim grinning with a gaming controller gripped in both hands, clearly gleeful from a victory. Cass caught mid-pirouette, lines of her body clean and graceful. Duke with a soft smile, like he wasn’t quite sure how he’d ended up there, but was glad for it. Alfred, mouth quirked up in that smirk he got so often when watching them. Even Talia, the pencil marks soft enough to make her seem almost gentle. 

And there was even Jason. Damian had left his face unfinished enough that he looked like the child he’d been before his death, though the smile was the same. 

Damian had even included pictures of the pets, carefully and lovingly rendered.

“What the fuck,” Jason said. “Why are we creating this monstrosity when you did _this?_ ”

“My teacher doesn’t believe that I did it,” Damian said shortly. ”She said I was to do another one unassisted. To not _pay_ for my homework this time.”

“Your teacher’s an asshole,” Jason said. The assumption made his blood boil, given that Damian had chosen to share one of his few true passions. “This is incredible.”

The tips of Damian’s ears were turning red; it took Jason a second to realize that he was embarrassed, not about to explode in anger. And-- he wasn’t meeting Jason’s eyes, but he looked almost pleased with the compliment. 

Jason looked back at the mess of glitter, glue, and various craft supplies that was drying on the floor. “You know what we should do?”

“We are not hanging that up,” Damian said. 

Jason shook his head. “I think we should go egg your teacher’s house.”

Damian scrunched up his nose. “I don’t think--”

“If you think that Robin and Red Hood can’t manage to egg one house without getting caught…”

“I didn’t say that,” Damian said stiffly.

“Then come on,” Jason said, folding the poster back up. “You can turn in the new one tomorrow. But tonight? Sweet revenge.”

Damian hesitated a moment more before succumbing to his desire for vengeance.

He even got caught up enough in gathering egging supplies that he didn’t notice that Jason took the original poster.


End file.
